As a woman, would you let your womb be controlled by a remote control? Place an electronic device in your body with Wi-Fi capabilities? These are the questions that most women will ask in regard to the upcoming contraceptive microchip which may soon be approved for use.
With the financial and research assistance of The Bill & Melinda Gates’ Foundation, MIT researchers developed a tiny implantable birth control device that not only delivers 200 monthly doses (16 years worth) of Progestin into the female body, but can be managed by a remote control via Wi-Fi signalling.
The Gates’ are all about sexual philanthropy recently. Not too long ago, they even promoted the development of 11 condoms for the future, after offering a scientific contest for better condom ideas in exchange for grant money. These 11 condom ideas selected out of over 800 entries are already officially known as the best ideas to come out of this technology after 500 years of it being in existence. …but I digress.
Due to be Federally approved and released by 2018, this revolutionary contraceptive device was developed by MicroCHIPS. MicroCHIPS is a Lexington, MA-based medical device company formed from MIT that focuses on the development and implementation of micro-technology within the human body to improve the health of people with chronic conditions that require careful monitoring and precise therapy.
The 20 x 20 x 7 millimeters tiny device, which is designed to be implanted just beneath a woman’s skin either in her abdomen, buttocks, or upper arm, automatically releases the control hormone on a monthly basis and its on/off switch can be controlled via a Wi-Fi remote control. Doctors may even adjust the doses remotely. The current device awaiting clinical trials can last 16 years; however, it may even last longer if/when turned off during times when women are trying to get pregnant or are pregnant.
“The ability to turn the device on and off provides a certain convenience factor for those who are planning their family,” Dr. Robert Farra, president and Chief Operating Officer of MicroCHIPS, told the BBC.
The Gates’ Foundation originally intended the primary use of this device to be in poorer and non-Western societies. Several governments and organisations around the world have already agreed to try to bring family planning to around 120 million more women by 2020. However, there is a growing interest in Western countries for its use, particularly in the U.S.
Although, the Western skeptics and religious fanatics are out there. Some have even warned of “Ovarian Hacking;” where a hacker could tap into female’s remote controls and turn devices on/off or change the doses without the female ever knowing it. Others say that since the device is controlled via Wi-Fi, governments can hack in to women and know their current health, sexual status, and even monitor when they have sex. Now, this is all speculation, so take these nay-Sayers with a grain of salt, but we do not know for sure at this point of the level of Wi-Fi security these devices provide. The device is still in development, so the technology within it should improve during this process and even after human clinical trials. Plus, the Food & Drug Administration (FDA) has already noted to MicroChips that it will be necessary to encrypt the chips to keep their wireless data flow private and secure.
“[A] remote-controlled computer chip that potentially leaves the patient’s health at the mercy of anyone with sufficient computer skills presents its own issues,” LifeSiteNews reports. “Dr. Robert Farra of MIT said the subcutaneous computer chip must be given ‘secure encryption’ so that ‘someone across the room cannot re-program your implant.’ To date, that security has not been developed.”
Rutherford Institute founder and constitutional attorney John Whitehead expressed:
“Here’s what I’ve learned about government – whatever technology we have, theirs is much greater,” Whitehead shared, in lieu of the recent U.S. Supreme Court decision last year, Maryland v. King, which opened the floodgate for proliferated DNA collection. “The FBI is collecting a huge DNA database now.”
“I’m afraid the chip could be activated in some harmful way,” Whitehead added, referring to the future possibility of a eugenics program. “It could basically bar certain people from having children.”
“Congress has given us no guidelines [about the use of invasive forms of technology because it’s] funded by the same groups that are providing the technology,” Whitehead asserts.
Currently only half of one percent of women in the U.S. have had implantable birth control. Although the technology right now last for only up to 3 years and requires implantation/removal from inside the uterus. So, who’s to say how many Western females will want such a device in their body, even if it lasts longer and is not so invasively implanted. It may be better for the voluntary non-Western female for better family planning and population control. Who’s to know at this point?
I look forward to reading further on the risks and benefits this device may offer. Would I implant a microchip device into my body for birth control? I don’t know at this point. We need to know more.
MicroChips: http://www.mchips.com/index.html
Other Related Articles:
Technology Review: http://www.technologyreview.com/news/528121/a-contraceptive-implant-with-remote-control/
Huffington Post: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/07/10/wireless-birth-control_n_5568336.html
The Week – Bill Gates Condoms of the Future: http://theweek.com/article/index/253231/meet-the-11-condoms-of-the-future-selected-by-bill-gates
Life's Many Experiences 